At the heart of any Life Review is Love, which calls out for a response to these questions:

what is true love? (what is false love?)

what is the quality of my love?

is true love the only thing that matters?

Suppose that my ultimate purpose in life is to love, that the ultimate realization of my personal fulfillment is to be found in the fullest realization and expression of love of which I am capable and willing.

As I suppose this, in light of the questions posed above, two more questions immediately come to mind: what is love? And: am I here (on earth, in this dense manifest realm) to love merely for love’s sake?

Or: am I here to love for some other (deeper, broader, higher, grander) cosmic purpose of which I am not yet aware or sufficiently developed and evolved to understand and appreciate fully?

Perhaps none of these questions would even be necessary if I were immersed in a milieu that welcomed and fostered peace and love, joy and bliss, grace and ease, at almost every turn.

Unfortunately, I am not – nor have I ever been (at least not during my current time here on earth).

A couple of days ago, I came across this: “love is surrender.”

This simple declaration resonsates profoundly, deeply and truly, not only with the heart of my soul, but with a post that I wrote almost three years ago to the day in which I am writing these words.

This essay, which I entitled The Art of Surrender, remains one of my favorite posts. In it, I highlight a common distinction between “dwelling in the moment” and “going and growing with the flow”.

Where dwelling in the moment occurs within a sphere of love and influence allowed by the soul, going and growing with the flow occurs within a purview of joy and harmony generated by the spirit.

In my mind, this distinction is critical to responding adequately to the questions posed above about love.

Also critical: while these questions can only ever be answered deeply and truly by the heart of a soul, these same questions can only ever be answered wisely and freely by a spirit with a soul.

Responses coming from the heart of soul and answers coming from a spirit with a soul will obviously be different, but if a dynamic balance between soul and spirit, heart and mind, sacred and divine, is to be valued and maintained, the responses and answers must resonate and harmonize with each other.

Let us begin here: what is love?

Basically, essentially, and ideally, what is love?

I offer these propositions with love …

For the heart of soul, love is surrender.

In other words, love is receptive, love is reflective, love is responsive. As such, love is vulnerable to “letting it be” to create a sacred space in the heart of the soul for a ready and willing expression of appreciation, benediction, and compassion. Basically, this is what love is.

For a spirit with soul, love is purposive.

Love is assertive, expressive, and protective (never reactive). As such, love is intentional – intent on “making it so”, on keeping the peace, on being ready, willing, and able to confer blessings, to express itself passionately and compassionately, with gratitude and appreciation. Essentially, this is what love is.

For a soul and spirit in harmony, love is versatile.

In other words, love is flexible, love is dynamic, love is spontaneous. As such, love is expansive. Ideally, this is what love is.

Basically, at the heart of soul, love is surrender because loving in and through this space can only ever be vulnerable.

Essentially, for a spirit with soul, love is purposive because loving generously and benevolently with purpose through passion or compassion can only ever be intentional.

Ideally, for a soul and spirit in harmony, love is expansive because loving with soul through spirit can only ever be versatile.

As we can see, love is a complex phenomenon that is full of potential.

More can obviously be said about the nature, meaning, value, and purpose of love. My intention here is to offer this snapshot of love before I explore the nature, meaning, value, and purpose of the Cosmic Life Review.

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So, what is this life review? And what does it mean? And what is its ultimate aim?

And, most important of all, in service to the aims of this inquiry, what cues and clues does this life review provide to help us explore, express, and realize the ultimate in personal fulfillment?

The Cosmic Life Review has been described as panoramic, vivid, colorful, near-instantaneous, like being in the middle of an amphitheater, experiencing everything knowingly and simultaneously, with godlike omnipresence and omniscience, with 360 vision. Those who undergo a review, and return to tell the tale, report that they live their lives all over again, from birth to death, from multiple perspectives.

But there’s more.

All is made apparent and transparent, through thought and feeling, behavior and conduct. Hidden causes, conditions, and consequences – all are made evident to the reviewer in the review.

If the review of an entire life is expected to be difficult to bear by the reviewer, other (more advanced) souls can be counted on to support the soul who undergoes the review, slowing the review down in selected places in the sequence of events that make up a life, highlighting certain events, or stopping it all together while the reviewer copes with grief or anguish even as they infuse this soul with unconditional love.

No one judges the soul undergoing the review, except the soul itself. Judgment Day is not an actual day (at least not from the point of view of those who inhabit The Other Side), and not even a time of reckoning as timelessness prevails on The Other Side. There is no need for God to judge the soul, as the ground has already been laid bare and prepared for the soul to judge itself in the fullest light of love and truth.

Some souls are expected to return to the earthly realm after undergoing this review. That rare soul who is not expected to return might undergo one review to come to terms with its life on earth, a second review to see what could have been had the soul not missed certain opportunities, and a third review after contemplating which opportunities the soul would have chosen to realize, with a second chance at life on earth.

The review, up to now, has been made manifest for those who have experienced a lucid death and for those who have come close to having a lucid death experience. Reviewers have commented in retrospect that the review process is a realization of truth with respect to who they are and what they said and did (or didn’t say and do), especially in the light of assuming the perspectives of those they affected adversely.

Important to note: the review is not merely a review, but a second living of the life lived from a more expanded (and seemingly omniscient) perspective that includes the perspectives of others affected or influenced, with profound effects on those who undergo this process after returning to live among us on earth. Having been made aware of the pain and suffering they caused and its long-term consequences on the lives of others, the reviewers are much more conscious of their behavior, actions, and conduct with respect to others in their daily lives.

An actual example: a soul viewing itself as a boy teasing a girl causes pain and (consequently) lifelong shyness, which (consequently) causes her parents to be saddened by this shyness; all of this is experienced by the soul and all of this is realized fully and consciously. Most notably, a seemingly innocuous act can have lasting repercussions, not only for those immediately affected, but by those indirectly related.

What does this all mean for those of us who still value personal fulfillment in this life?

The review is part of a process of getting to know yourself more truly and deeply, more wisely and freely, more intimately and fully, which includes (1) time alone after a review for quiet contemplation of what was seen and experienced during the review; and (2) a time to discuss the review with a council of elder souls, not unlike a group of professors who address a Ph.D. student in an oral exam.

For some souls, especially for the pure of heart, the review is a pleasant experience, confirming that “yes, I’m on the right track”.

For others, there is regret, anguish, and despair around choices made (or not made), actions taken (or not taken), as well as opportunities missed that could have brought so much love and joy, sparking this observation: “if only I had allowed myself to have the presence of mind and courage to make good on my purpose, passion, and potential during this particular lifetime on earth.”

When does this life review take place? Where does it take place?

The questions of “when” and “where” seem best addressed in terms of process, in relation to the divide between life and death that provides contrast between This Side and The Other Side.

When? Whenever it seems appropriate for the soul to undergo a review not long after its body expires (temporarily or terminally).

Where? There are no spatial coordinates, only places in a process, which have been described in detail, either through a Journey of Souls or a process that occurs during a lucid death experience.

As to why, this is where things get really interesting.

An adequate and satisfying response to “Why? Why does this life review exist? What purpose does it serve?” starts with the fact that the life review serves to raise awareness of two basic realities:

choices made (or not made) and actions taken (or not taken)

a service-to-self (STS) or service-to-other (STO) orientation

The life review helps reviewers come to a fuller realization of who they are with respect to (1) their choices (for example, “could I have made better choices, different choices, with respect to fulfilling my person, my potential, my purpose?”) and (2) their fundamental orientation toward self and other ( “Was I too selfish? Could I have been more genuinely humble in my approach to life and with others?” and “Was I too selfless for my own good? Did I live under a pall of servility and false humility?”)

Again, why? Why a fuller realization of self and soul and spirit? I will attempt a clear and comprehensive answer to this question in due course (hint: it has to do with fully realizing the nature, meaning, and purpose of love in relation to yourself, other souls, and the world at large).

The implications of undergoing a Cosmic Life Review are startling:

every reality is recorded – every thought, feeling, word, deed, and choice made in relation to “the other” is reviewed and experienced and contemplated in full awareness of the consequences for the self, soul, and spirit

our lives, our identities, are not confined to experiences of life on earth; it seems that we’re here (on earth) to learn and grow, to explore and create, to realize our souls truly and deeply and intimately and to realize our spirits wisely and freely and fully

Hell is both real (objective) and illusory (subjective), and yet, when viewed in a positive light, life on earth, in all of its pain and suffering, its anguish and despair, is an opportunity to awaken soulfully, to enlighten spiritually, to be and do and have more of who and what we are

if God is the embodiment of pure love, then the degree to which we separate ourselves from the unifying, harmonizing influence of this love is the degree to which we can feel, through pain and suffering, anguish and despair, just how far from this love we have fallen

a painful, distressing life review could be viewed as a gift from God, a gift that brings us back to ourselves, to our promise and potential, to our purpose and passion, to being who and what we really and truly are, to having and doing what we really and truly love to have and do

the life review is a blessing in disguise: “I was lost and now I am found; I now know the truth of me”

At this time, we can only speculate about how all of this comes about, at least until science and technology are advanced enough to probe the entire process with analytic rigor, but then, perhaps this is something that is forever beyond the scope of science and technology.

Earlier, I hinted that the Cosmic Life Review has to do with realizing the nature, meaning, and purpose of love as soul and spirit, which brings us back to the questions that I posed about love.

Let us explore these questions in light of what we know about the life review.

Here again, for ease of reference, are the questions posed:

what is love? (revisited)

what is true love? (what is false love?)

what is the quality of my love?

is true love the only thing that matters?

I will draw on my responses to these questions in an attempt to answer the biggest question of all:

“Am I here on earth to love merely for love’s sake or am I here to love for some other (deeper, broader, higher, grander) cosmic purpose of which I am not yet aware or sufficiently developed and evolved to understand and appreciate fully?”

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In light of what we now know about the Cosmic Life Review, what is love?

Earlier, I touched on the nature, meaning, and purpose of love in basic, essential, and ideal terms.

Here’s a quick recap of what I realized for myself: if love is vulnerable for the heart of a soul, and if love is intentional for a spirit with soul, then love is versatile for a soul and spirit in harmony.

Basically, to be vulnerable (at the heart of soul) is to allow myself to be touched or embraced by a sense of the sacred.

I am personally blessed to exercise this capacity to be vulnerable at a moment’s notice. I can appreciate what it means to extend a sacred touch to a tiny flower growing through a crack in a stone.

Even now, contemplating this image brings tears to my eyes, as I am already awakened to the power of love to bless and heal a world that so desperately needs to be blessed and healed.

If all I did for the remainder of my lifetime was to surrender to love at the heart of my soul, to extend and receive love unconditionally (and vulnerably), with sacred intent, my life review in the afterlife would, in all likelihood, be quite pleasant indeed, but then, what of spirit? What of my capacity to be spirited? What of my ability to live (and love) spiritually above and beyond living (and loving) religiously?

As I mentioned earlier: essentially, for a spirit with soul, love is purposive because loving generously and benevolently with purpose through passion or compassion can only ever be intentional.

Keys words here: for a spirit with soul.

We divide the spirit from soul at our own risk, divorcing spirituality from religiosity at our peril, and yes, we do have a choice in the matter. The Cosmic Life Review tells us so over and over again.

The choices we make and the actions we take on earth, in a spirit of expansion cut off from the heart of the soul, might seem insignificant or irrelevant in the moment we make them or take them, but a life review can have us realize very quickly just how significant and relevant they were to those we affected or influenced.

Choking off the heart of soul with spirit is synonymous with egocentric entitlement, as if we cannot ever hope to wait for the world to catch up with us, and when the world fails to do our bidding, to live up to our expectations, we eventually become cynical and disillusioned. Even as cynical detachment fuels egocentric entitlement, egocentric entitlement fuels cynical detachment, in a vicious circle that goes nowhere fast.

Again, for a spirit with soul, love is purposive because loving generously or benevolently with purpose through passion or compassion can only ever be intentional. That is, if I am to be passionate, I allow the passion to tap the heart of soul to convey generosity of spirit, and if I am to be compassionate, I allow the compassion to tap the heart of soul to convey a spirit of benevolence.

True, I could allow myself to live and love receptively, reflectively, and responsively, without spirit, and be content with that, and let that be my realization of the ultimate in personal fulfillment. For a soul whose spirit has exhausted all possibility (in the grand scheme of things), this might be an option for life, but for me personally, no – at least, not at this time in my life; letting my earthly spirit die just doesn’t feel right to me.

I can, however, appreciate the immense value of living wholly through heart and soul as a vital means of healing and recovery or even as a temporary respite from a world that has lost its soul to spirit.

As I see it, the antidote to any pending or impending divorce between soul and spirit, to keeping spirit aligned with soul (to having soul nourish spirit) is to keep bringing soul and spirit back into harmony.

And yes, this is “a bringing”, not “an allowing”.

As I mentioned earlier: ideally, for a soul and spirit in harmony, love is expansive because loving with soul through spirit can only ever be versatile. For a soul and spirit living and loving and learning in harmony, the risk of adversely affecting “the other” is mitigated (or eliminated), as and when the heart of soul informs the spirit, even as the spirit inspires the heart of soul to keep feeding the spirit.

With all of this in mind, I feel that I can now bring my attention to these questions:

what is true love? (what is false love?)

what is the quality of my love?

is true love the only thing that matters?

To know when love is true and when love is false, we would do well to be mindful of this distinction: presence or pretense?

Let us not be too quick to criticize or condemn pretense; pretending to be someone you’re not can be a lot of fun and watching others pretend to be someone they’re not can also be a lot of fun.

These days, in spiritual circles, a lot of cachet (too much cachet?) is given to authenticity, to being authentic, but I ask you this: can we not also be pretentious and have a whole lot of fun being so?

It is not uncommon for Elders in council in the afterlife to resort to pretense, theatrically adorning costumes and pendants to make a point in their meetings with souls after they undergo their life reviews.

There is, however, a deeper, darker meaning of pretense, a meaning that includes all manner of cunning seduction, deception, manipulation, and exploitation. Letting go and letting be is resisted for a reason.

True love is surrender, with presence, at the heart of soul, but only in the absense of pretense darkly imposed, insinuated, or imagined.

True love is generous in passion and benevolent in compassion, exercised with presence by a spirit with soul, but only when such generosity and benevolence is conveyed without dark ulterior motives.

True love is versatile (and therefore expansive) when soul and spirit can choose to act in harmony with presence – and with pretense lightly, playfully, mindfully, skillfully, and artfully enacted.

Basically, essentially, and ideally, love that is true is wholly present to “the other” in all of the ways indicated, with or without lightly construed pretense, but in the absense of dark pretense.

Recall that all is revealed in a Cosmic Life Review.

Having said all of this, not all acts of seduction, deception, manipulation, or exploitation occur in the dark. Some are fully conscious, committed in the light of truth, love, and wisdom: a woman or a man can be lovingly seduced; a child can be playfully deceived; events and situations can be manipulated in your favor; outcomes can be exploited to good effect.

Intention is key, obviously, but then so is insight into causes and foresight exercised with due respect paid to consequences, as the road to hell can (in word and deed) be paved with “good” intentions.

One basic intention – acting for your own good (first and foremost) in alignment with the good of all – underpins The Golden Rule: be and do until others as you would have others be and do unto you.

The benefit of undergoing a Cosmic Life Review after transition is that you get to experience the direct results of your ability (or inability) to abide by the most fundamental rule in the universe.

In your life review, you’ll get direct feedback on just how true (and wise and free) your love really was.

Which brings me to my next question: what is the quality of my love?

This is a question that some would have us pose at the ends of our lives, but it’s a question best asked and answered at the end of each and every day of our lives, given the impermanent nature of life.

I’ll say from the outset that this question is also incomplete because it’s a question that only a soul would ask in the absence of spirit (and not all elderly people at the ends of their lives are without spirit).

Here’s a better (more complete) question, involving as it does both soul and spirit: what is the quality and vitality of my love?

More to the point, how many spontaneous sacred and divine acts of love, motivated with pure intention, for good reason, have I committed since the day of my birth?

Have I, on balance, loved more than not?

Have I been vulnerable to my love, in my love, for my love? Have I surrendered to love? Have I surrendered in love? Have I surrendered for love? Or have I been too scared to open my heart to love?

Have I served and loved myself enough to be passionately generous and generously passionate? Have I enjoyed serving and loving others enough to be benevolent in my compassion for them?

Have I loved expansively with versatility in a multitude of ways with a multitude of persons, places, and things for a multitude of reasons?

Or have I been walking among the living dead, my heart turned to stone, my head cut off from my heart, painfully and miserably oblivious to the presence, purpose, and power of love in my life?

These questions will (eventually) be made all too evident in a life review, and so my way of thinking is this: why not ask them now?

One more question before I address the Big Question: is true love the only thing that matters? Certainly, this is the impression that many souls get after they undergo a Cosmic Life Review, but if the quality of my love is true to who I am, then what of the vitality of my love?

Consider: the vitality of love is conveyed by way of joy.

If the quality of love is gauged by depth and truth, at peace with presence, at the heart of soul, then the vitality of love is found in wisdom and freedom through a joyous spirit with true love in my soul.

Strictly speaking, love is not joy per se; joy follows love to the extent to which soul and spirit co-operate in harmony. If peace and love are united in soul, then joy and bliss are united in spirit.

And now, the Big Question …

Am I here on earth to love merely for love’s sake or am I here to love for some other (deeper, broader, higher, grander) cosmic purpose of which I am not yet aware or sufficiently developed and evolved to understand and appreciate fully?

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Giving and receiving love, expressing and sharing love, are important, but just how important? If the Cosmic Life Review is anything to go by, the answer is plain and simple: extremely important.

But why? (asked the child)

If we were all here to love merely for love’s sake, why would any troubled or tormented soul be required to endure a life review, even with the support of souls who have much love to give, unconditionally and spontaneously? And why would any soul be compelled to return to body after conferring with these souls of love and light and realizing that this is where it wishes to remain (in the light)?

Those who have studied the accounts of those who have undergone a Life Review have come to some momentous conclusions …

An action we take that we think is not important can turn out to be one of the most important acts we have ever taken in our lives. This is because we cannot possibly be aware of the cascading consequences or repercussions of a seemingly simple act. We cannot possibly know how deeply a word uttered or a deed committed might affect the one on the receiving end of it, as well as those who are at one or more degrees of separation beyond the person we immediately affect. We also cannot possibly be aware of the sheer importance of acts that we ourselves have committed that indicate that our souls have grown or our spirits have developed or our selves have evolved significantly.

Unconditional and spontaneous acts of love are the greatest acts we can perform. Again, why? Apparently because such acts of love are committed without condition and without cunning, and as such, require a pure heart, and yet, such purity, if imposed from within or without, no matter how well-meaning or well-intentioned, can only serve to dilute or dampen the vitality of the human spirit. We cannot force anyone to be fair and just in their conduct and we cannot compel anyone to be firm and pure in their intentions, so that any acts of love that they do commit are unconditonal and spontaneous. What we can do is serve as examples for others to follow, if they so choose.

In light of these conclusions, and to further clarify and elaborate, let us take a close look at these terms: sanctify, purify, justify.

To sanctify is to make sacred: a candle, a figurine, or a shrine can sanctify a space and make it holy; a person or an object can be held or touched or kissed or caressed with sacred intent. The senses are sanctified through sacred intent and through contact with sacred persons, sacred sites, sacred spaces, and sacred objects.

To purify, in the sense that I mean it here, is to cleanse and clear a space in the heart of the soul to set and maintain intentions that manifest desired outcomes or experiences without dark pretense. The heart of soul is purified through awareness and acceptance, by being receptive and responsive to “the other” as it comes up for processing.

To justify myself, my place, my position, my cause, my concern, my interest is “to show or prove it to be right or reasonable”. This is a vital earthly lesson: the end desired does not always justify the means required. In a Life Review, souls judge themselves worthy or unworthy, in the light of truth and love, which affect their placements on The Other Side, where they feel most at ease, before incarnating elsewhere.

We are here on earth to love, and to sustain this love truly and wisely, for a reason. What might this reason be?

The Cosmic Life Review offers vital clues, especially in light of the assumption that this process would have us be justified, purified, and sanctified. The fact that many souls have described this profound life review as the single most enlightening experience they have ever had makes it a compelling source of reasons for loving beyond mere loving.

The Life Review educates us about life and death – in particular, and in more personal terms, my life and my death.

The Life Review educates us about ourselves, shedding the light of truth and love on why we are the way we are; on the motives behind our actions; on the impact we had on others; on how we could have done better; and on what we can do to correct certain deficiencies or defects in ourselves that are not compatible with life on the Other Side.

The Life Review evaluates three vitally important aspects of our lives as souls:

it evaluates the extent of our evolution as spirits in the light of our realization as souls;

it evaluates our progress in completing our own particular mission in life on earth; and

it evaluates our lives on earth to ascertain the next step in our progression in the light

The central, universal theme of our lives, if the Cosmic Life Review is accepted as valid, seems to be this: we are souls of love and light on missions to grow, develop, and progress spiritually.

This supposition is in keeping with two fundamental characteristics of the life review: although our motives for everything we ever did will be revealed with stunning clarity, the process itself is oriented toward fact-finding, not fault-finding. During a review, with other (more advanced) souls present, the only ones who will ever fault us for what we did or didn’t do on earth will be ourselves and ourselves alone, which is why a commitment to developing a capacity to forgive ourselves before we pass into The Great Beyond comes highly recommended.

But I digress.

If we are souls of love and light on missions to grow and to develop and progress spiritually, how and why and where does love come into play?

Are we here on earth merely to love for love’s sake on the assumption that all else will follow? Or are we here to love for a purpose that goes beyond mere loving and caring, serving and sharing?

Is love, understood and appreciated comprehensively, a means to an end or an end in itself?

The Cosmic Life Review offers yet more clues.

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Life Reviewers report that they experienced one or more of these incidents:

they became everyone with whom they came into contact over an entire lifetime, feeling their feelings, thinking their thoughts, living their experiences, and being privy to the reasons and motives behind their actions

they lived every detail of every second of their lives, experiencing this re-living as comprehending every one of their thoughts and feelings simultaneously and re-living the way they dealt with others and how others dealt with them

they selectively viewed a few special deeds in their lives, replaying parts of their lives to focus on a particular event for instruction, as well as viewing events from past lives and/or events to come in their immediate futures

they felt a strong sense of responsibility as they underwent the life review, feeling either a sense of judgment from other souls present, or more often than not, feeling themselves to be in judgment of their own choices and actions

If I didn’t know any better, I would say these Reviewers are getting a preview of Godhood.

To make sense of these reports, it helps to know the difference between what is called the higher Self (“the Self”, which is impersonal) and the earthly, incarnated self (“my self”, which is personal). In our cosmic journeys in and through and out of space and time, we gather memories of incarnated encounters and experiences, which are recorded with precision, and in detail, to be re-viewed and re-lived generally or selectively after transition. If the highest Self to which I have access represents the most quality and vitality that can be contained and conveyed by my physicality (by the body), then my earthly self is partial to allowing encounter with this totality and having an experience of this totality.

Aside: higher and highest do not necessarily mean better and best, as encounters with lower frequencies of energy can be highly instructive; the sense in which I use “higher” is “broader”, not “better”: “the Self with a higher perspective” is “the Self with a broader perspective” (and vice versa)

In light of this distinction, the key components of Self are soul and spirit, which are anchored and given expression through incarnation. If the body is a vessel for soul, then the body is a vehicle for spirit. If the heart of soul is where we encounter peace and love, then the soul of spirit is where we experience joy and bliss. When soul and spirit come together as a unity in harmony, grace and ease follow.

This is why I am (personally) so preoccupied with the ways and means by which I can (a) be centred in love, which serves to expose the truth of who and what I am; (b) follow (or manifest!) a path with heart, which serves to reveal the value, meaning, purpose, and direction of my earthly life; and (c) love truly (soulfully) and wisely (spiritually), which serves to realize a dynamic balance between soul and spirit, encouraging me (my earthly identity) to explore sacred and divine ways of being on earth, to allow soulful heartfelt encounters with “the earthly other”, so as to manifest joy and bliss, through peace and love, with grace and ease. The knowledge is easy to come by – the realization not so easy.

The Self is the highest totality that can be contained and conveyed by a body. The Self (my Higher Self, which is not really mine) is a totality that serves to contain and convey my earthly identity and personality; it knows and sees and understands and appreciates and blesses at the highest (deepest, broadest) level possible, while the physical, incarnated part of my earthly self continues to move through third density (3D). Anchoring the truth and wisdom of the Self into my physicality is integral to the realization of soul and to the evolution of spirit in human form. Where the spirit of Self gets expressed through body and personality, the soul of Self gets anchored through body and identity.

Prior to incarnation, the soul of Self plays a role in designing and deciding my personal experience in this lifetime, having a hand in drawing forth a predestined set of encounters and experiences. If the soul of Self of which I am a part wishes to know what it would be like to endure hardship, it will activate and potentiate this experience prior to incarnation, while knowing in its heart that I am free to choose otherwise. Often, however, I do not feel free to choose otherwise because I am still in a process of awakening toward an epiphany of enlightenment. This awakening is an awakening of my capacity to follow my bliss in joy, through peace and love, with grace and ease as my rewards. As and when I come close to mastering hardship, I am that much more able to choose when and where I encounter or experience hardship.

Speaking personally for a moment, my own process of exploring the nature, meaning, value, and purpose of love through the Cosmic Life Review is really just my way of remembering who I am so that I can return to higher (deeper, broader) levels of consciousness on my way to blending and merging with the soul and spirit of a Self of which I am a part. As I begin to experience my earthly self as an outcome of this blending and merging, I get to encounter and experience higher (deeper, broader) levels of knowledge and wisdom about life and love, opening me (my earthly self) up to higher (deeper, broader) levels of density beyond 3D through 4D into 5D and beyond (if only in knowledge). Perhaps before I transition to The Other Side into The Great Beyond, me and Self will become One, affording Me vaster powers of creation.

At present, the Self of which I am part is much more powerful than I am. To get a taste of just how powerful, I encourage you to read, review, and contemplate the four points that I shared above. The reference to “they” (the Reviewers) is a reference to blended identities of Self and self which are experienced out of body during Life Reviews. The unusually high standards of truth and love and wisdom that are present in these reviews serve to give Selves with their souls and spirits yardsticks by which to measure progress towards being welcomed and embraced by the Light of Source Consciousness, allowing us (as incarnated beings) ever greater access to the Soul and Spirit of Source. It is as if the Selves of which we are a part are striving toward having the status of godhood with their own worlds to manifest and experience within the purview of The One.

In light of this brief overview of Self, soul, and spirit, the questions posed above about love are beginning to make more sense. For ease of reference, here they are again, with a draft of my responses:

1. If we are souls of love and light on missions to grow and to develop and progress spiritually, how and why and where does love come into play? Let me rephrase this question: if we are souls of peace and love on missions to grow and realize ourselves as we develop and progress spiritually, how and why and where does love come into play? Love is at the heart of soul, which has its source in Self, which has its source in The One, which can be accessed through the soul of Self. My sense is that without sourcing and sharing the love, there can be no value, no meaning, and no purpose in anything we have or do.

2. Are we here on earth merely to love for love’s sake on the assumption that all else will follow? Or are we here to love for a purpose that goes beyond mere loving and caring, serving and sharing? As far as I can see at this point in time, the answer is both, depending on where we are in our realization as souls, in our evolution as spirits, and in our progression as Selves. If we are close to being fully realized as Selves, then perhaps it is appropriate to love merely for love’s sake, but I suspect that many of us (my self included) are no where near to being close. When I wrote, “It is as if the Selves of which we are a part are striving toward having the status of godhood with their own worlds to manifest and experience within the purview of The One”, I was hinting at a purpose for love that goes beyond mere loving.

3. Is love, understood and appreciated comprehensively, a means to an end or an end in itself? A slight rephrasing: Is love, understood, appreciated, and realized comprehensively, a means to an end or an end in itself? I surmise, by the time love is understood, appreciated, and realized comprehensively, it will have become an end in itself for a Self fit for godhood with its own world to manifest. In the meantime, here is a passage from someone who had direct contact with advanced beings of light after being rescued from a state of eternal oblivion, giving us a taste of things to come:

The great gifts that God wants to give us will not be given until we are loving enough to handle them. God wants to give us the power to control matter and energy with our minds, the ability to communicate directly with our thoughts, to travel through time and space by will, to have knowledge by contemplation. The power of these gifts are beyond our wildest imagination, but they will not be ours until we mature spiritually and can use these powers wisely and lovingly ~ Howard Storm (My Descent into Death: A Second Chance at Life, p. 43-44)

The emphases in this passage are mine.

I recommend picking up a copy of The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, by don Miguel Ruiz, which serves to bring us closer into alignment with the soul and spirit of the Self that is ready to guide our every choice and action on earth (and beyond). In preparation for your next Life Review, consider making and maintaining these four agreements: be impeccable with your word, make no assumptions, take nothing personally, and always do your best.

This concludes my first draft of the first basic issue known as the Cosmic Life Review.

Given the diverse mechanics of the Life Review, I’ve changed its qualification from the Panoramic Life Review to the Cosmic Life Review to better reflect its nature as an event having cosmic significance